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The goal of this study was to identify the determinants of employee participation in organizations across Europe. Power distance, uncertainty avoidance, competition, unionisation, sector, organizational size and business strategy were all expected to influence amount of employee involvement. The hypothesised relationships were contrasted using data from the EPOC survey, a representative survey of over 5,700 organisations located in 10 European Union countries. The results supported all but two of the expected relationships. Power distance and organisational size did not predict amount of participation. A closer look at the relationship between organizational size and employee involvement revealed a significant relationship when type of participation, consultative or delegative, was included in the analysis.

The goal of this study was to identify the determinants of employee participation in organizations across Europe. Power distance, uncertainty avoidance, competition, unionisation, sector, organizational size and business strategy were all expected to influence amount of employee involvement. The hypothesised relationships were contrasted using data from the EPOC survey, a representative survey of over 5,700 organisations located in 10 European Union countries. The results supported all but two of the expected relationships. Power distance and organisational size did not predict amount of participation. A closer look at the relationship between organizational size and employee involvement revealed a significant relationship when type of participation, consultative or delegative, was included in the analysis.

Purpose
Organizational cynicism is a growing trend in contemporary organizations. However, its impact on employee performance remains understudied. The purpose of this study is to address this gap by investigating the effect of three dimensions of organizational cynicism (cognitive, affective and behavioral cynicisms) on employee performance. The study also investigates the moderating effect of employee engagement on the relationship between three types of organizational cynicism and employee performance.


Design/methodology/approach
Primary data are collected through questionnaire from employees (N = 200) of various health organizations in Pakistan by using a convenient sampling technique. Hierarchal multiple regression models are used by using SPSS.


Findings
The findings reveal that all three types of organizational cynicism (i.e. cognitive cynicism, affective cynicism and behavioral cynicism) have a significant negative relationship with employee performance, while employee engagement moderates this relationship. Moreover, the findings indicate that the majority of respondents are not happy with their organizations. They have the feeling that their organizations are not fulfilling their promises, in fact, are betraying them in different ways. This breach of contract becomes the reason for organizational cynicism among employees and negatively affects their performance at work.


Research limitations/implications
The study has a large population size and it is quite difficult to address the whole population and collect data from a large sample because of time and limited budget.


Practical/implications
The organizational culture can mitigate the negative effect of organizational cynicism and enhance performance by promoting employee engagement. The study helps psychologists to understand employees' attitudes and improve personnel selection to ensure they recruit the right people. Openness, honesty and early communication can increase predictability and controllability of future events.


Social implications
The job insecurity and lack of adequate compensation are assertive factors towards low productivity and negative attitude toward organization.


Originality/value
According to the researchers' best knowledge, only few studies tried to investigate the relationship between organizational cynicism and employee performance by using the moderating effect of employee engagement. Therefore, it will be a good contribution in existing literature to understand consequences of cynicisms.

A recent article in Employee Relations by Frank Fishwick discussed the high incidence of overtime work in manual occupations in Britain and examined some of the practical difficulties involved in reducing the amount of overtime work. Fishwick concluded that the problem of endemic overtime in British industry is a matter for public concern and that there is no easy solution to this problem. The overtime dilemma is not unique to Britain. Recent data show that 27.3 per cent of all fulltime US workers work overtime; about half of these are working one to eight extra hours per week, another third are working 9–19 extra hours, and the balance are putting in 20 or more overtime hours per week week.

Leadership can be defined as the ability of an individual to lead or guide other people, teams or organizations. There have been many theories related to this topic including the characteristics of leaders, their situational communication, purpose, performance, authority, vision and mission, charm and presence of mind. The main types of employee engagement discussed in this study are individualized employee engagement and collaborative employee engagement in the context of the UK. This study mainly seeks to investigate the insights of employees and leaders on different leadership strategies to manage employees in the UK-based MNCs. Descriptive and inferential analysis was performed so as to ascertain the influence of two different leadership strategies – Individualized Employee Engagement (IEE) and Collaborative Employee Relations (CER) – on effective employee management. It was validated from findings in this study that employees and leaders both prefer and believe that individualized employee engagement leads to better and effective employee management.

A look at royal non-governmental organizations in a country where the head of government is in fact a royal, where 80 percent of foreign aid finds its way back to foreign donors, and where it is difficult to determine the difference between 'beneficiaries' of income-generating NGO projects and employees working in substandard conditions. The dichotomies here are real, though the lines fine.During the seasonal pressures of Christmas last year, an order was placed in Amman for an unusually big Bani Hamida rug. The design was determined in the office in Amman, including colors labeled in English abbreviations. After the request was brought to Gebal Bani Hamida, the orders for the appropriate colored wool were sent to the dyers. The women there realized that they did not have the exact shade of yellow requested, but amongst the over three-hundred other colors they did have, they found an approximate replacement. However, they could not make the decision to dye the wool on their own. Instead, they contacted the office in Amman, where their question was noted. Some time later, the designer was informed, and sent back the answer that only the exact tint of yellow would do. So the dyers waited for the stock to be refilled, over the timeliness of which they had little control. The office in Amman complained of the slowness of the work, pressing the women as to why they were behind in filling the order.

Now is the time for management to understand the implications for their companies or proposed legislative and administrative changes concerning benefits, and for them to make their views known to Congress and the Administration.

Iron and steel is an old industry. As a cyclical and a strategically important industry, it has long been subject to extensive government intervention in most countries, including Britain. When Labour won the general election in 1945, it was already pledged to nationalise several industries, including coal and steel. But steel had a lower priority than coal; the labour movement had not agreed a plan for steel nationalisation, which became the most complex and bitterly contested of the post‐war nationalisations.